Survey: Most Americans think their fellow citizens are getting ruder

The majority of Americans think their fellow citizens are becoming ruder, according to a new Rasmussen report.

Seventy-seven percent of Americans think that their peers are becoming less civilized as time goes by. Only 10 percent, however, believe that Americans are “becoming kinder and gentler,” according to the survey. The Rasmussen report also notes that 13 percent aren’t sure.

Half of the people sampled have confronted someone over an allegedly “rude or less civilized” behavior.

“What’s happened is that we’ve lost the constraints on our behavior that we had in the small societies we used to live in,” Alkon told The Daily Caller.

The author and advice columnist, under the pen name The Advice Goddess, suggests that the idea that Americans are becoming ruder is partially to blame because, now, “we are faceless on the Web.”

“Most people who are awful online would never even consider talking to a stranger in public the way they do on a blog,” she claimed.

The Rasmussen survey asked 1,000 adults over the telephone three questions: Are Americans becoming kinder and gentler or ruder and less civilized? Is it rude for someone sitting next to you in public to be talking on his or her cell phone? Have you ever confronted anyone over his or her rudeness? There is a 95-percent level of confidence with this survey.